RABBITS.

THE Rabbit is a gnawing animal, and is, therefore, classed in the family of Rodents. Leporida is the classical term used in Zoology under which these rodents are described. Of this family, the genus in which rabbits are included is denominated Lepus; but of this genus there are several species, of which the Lepus Cuniculus, or rabbit, is one. Its dental formula is Incisors Molars 28.

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From the Penny Cyclopædia, the following quotation is made-Article, Leporida: "The Rabbet, Rabbit, or Coney Lepus Cuniculus, Linn," (that is, Linnæus, the naturalist); "Coniglio, of the Italians; Conejo, of the Spanish; Coelho, of the Portuguese; Koniglein and Kaninchin, of the Germans; Konyn, or Konin, of the Dutch and Belgians; Kanin, of the Swedes; Kanine, of the Danes; and Cwningen, of the ancient British, is known to every one.

The rabbit is supposed to have been an aboriginal of Africa, and to have been introduced by the Romans into Spain, whence it has gradually extended, until it is now to be found naturalised in nearly all warm and temperate countries. In our island it has enjoyed an existence of more than 560 years, but how much more is not known. They were an article in the sumptuous bill of fare at the festal instalation of the Abbot of St. Austin, in the year 1309, when 600 of them were supplied at a cost of £15. Then, although but 6d. each, yet that was equal to the price of a pig. In that fourteenth century, the following was the scale of standard prices of articles and of paid wages:-wheat, per quarter, 3s. 4d; a fat ox, 16s.; a fat sheep, 1s. 2d. The wages of a master mason, per day, 4d; wages of masons and reapers, per day, 3d; haymakers and labourers, per day, 1d. According to this scale, a rabbit at sixpence would be a very considerable price. Rabbits, in this age and in England, are divided into the following four general kinds :

first, the Warreners, so called from their habitations being a rabbit warren. The best kind of warrens are a sandy soil, with a superficial layer of fine vegetable mould clothed with thyme, grass, and other herbage, where mining for burrows is easy, and supplying suitable food. Second, the Parkers, delighting in woods and parks, especially the latter, where are steep sandy elevations, and where the old red sandstone crops out. There, amid the sheltering retreats of overhanging furze and the shadowing trees, these rabbits pasture and gambol with high glee. The third kind get the nick-name of Hedgehogs, from their habit of burrowing in hedge-banks among its old roots and gnarly wood. And the fourth are the tame rabbits, called by the pet name of Sweethearts, for whom to provide both proper hutches and meat is the duty of their juvenile patron, and is at the same time a test of his genius, his generosity, his providence, and constancy. But, after depriving these pet rabbits of their liberty, and keeping them entirely dependent upon your attention and supplies, it were a cruelty, my young friend, to neglect them. Let their food be various; give them grass, clover, dandelion, hawkweek, fumitory, wild parsnip, the archangel kind of nettle, lettuce, cabbage leaves, carrots, turnips, and, occasionally, bran and a few tea leaves. Let their hutches slope a little, and be provided with an angle spouting to convey off the drainage; be often cleaned out, and then supplied with fresh sand or dry soil strewn on the floor; and thus will pleasure be reciprocated. The common wild rabbit is of brown grey colour; the tame ones, very various. In Hawkstone-park, Shropshire, the seat of Viscount Lord Hill, ten years ago they were white; now, the only colours there tolerated are black, or silvergrey, called silver springs; if a brown grey be seen there, it is shot by a keeper in charge. Not least among the interesting sights of Hawkstone-park is that of the thousands of these black parkers, as they sport over the rich emerald pasture of the gentle trough-like dells, and the grassy sloping sides or woody banks of its many acclivities; there they

are in the summer of all sizes and ages. Fine sport is afforded by them to the school children out for an excursion holiday, at Hawkstone, who, shouting and running after them, sometimes to the very front of the hall, are in the full acme of juvenile jubilation. Should any Primitive Methodist school visit Hawkstone, I hope they will restrain both feet and voice, and not obtrude upon the precincts of the hall, nor be rude in their behaviour. Lady Hill is so good as to allow well-conducted schools to be taken through the gardens as well as the parks; but rudeness has been known to restrict this generous indulgence.

The burrowing is principally the work of the female rabbit, or doe; she makes also a separate one of zig-zag form, widening at the bottom for the nest of her young, lining the nest with dry grass and fur taken from her own body. This burrow, when she leaves, she carefully covers at the entrance with soil, so as to make its locality difficult to be discerned. Rabbits are wonderfully prolific; they begin to have young at six months old, and will produce from five to eight at a time. Pennant says: rabbits will breed seven times a year, and bring eight young ones each time. On a supposition that this happens regularly during four years, their numbers will amount to 1,274,840.”— Penny Cyclopædia. A newspaper article, of the date June 19th, 1869, states that a Mr. Robinson, of Colac, in Australia, had employed on his large run as many as 100 men from April to December, 1868, at a cost of £5,000, killing rabbits, and that they had killed in that time two millions at least. This year he has 60 men so occupied, but their extermination appears impossible. The circumstance is expected to effect a reform from large to smaller runs in the arrangement of the landed estates. Rabbits there are a recent introduction by the Acclimatization Society.

The young of the rabbit are, at birth, blind, naked, and totally helpless; neither are they able to see until the 10th or 12th day; and they do not emerge from their nest-burrow until they are four or five weeks old.

The varieties of our domestic breeds are, doubtless, originally of the wild ones, for it often happens that Albinoes appear in a litter where neither of their parents are so; and the tame rabbit easily returns to its natural and instinctive habits if they regain their liberty.

Besides the foregoing description of rabbits, there is one of special interest, namely, the "rock" rabbit, which is often met with in Kaffir land, where it is called "Davey." It is bluish-grey, has round short ears, but no tail; it feeds on grass and roots, holding some kinds of its food in its fore claws while eating it, after the manner of a squirrel, and sitting up similarly also. This rabbit lives in holes and cliffs of the rocks along the irregularities and shelf-like projections of whose precipitous face or verge it runs with agility; there, indeed, is its refuge, quite inaccessible in its position, and safe in its retreat within its galleried cavities where are its homes. This species of rabbit abounds also in Syria; and a Rev. F. Fleming is positive this is the coney of Psa. civ. 18; and Prov. xxx. 26.

To thousands of human consumers the flesh of the rabbit is food; its skin is also an article of commerce; that of the silver-sprigs at one time fetched 3s. each; and only a few years since those from Hawkstone sold at 24s. the dozen. The fur, half a century ago, was in demand for ornamental linings to cloaks; and the skins of the black and silver-grey rabbits have, in costume, now various appropriations.

But is the value of the rabbit to be determined by the selfish considerations of diet and drapery only? Certainly not. The spirit of God has suggested a moral use also. Some creatures serve in the ministry of God for moral ends, which are not directly in the mercenary use of man. They supply in God's great school of nature various lessons to man. The conies are one of the four classes of "things, little on the earth, but exceedingly wise-a feeble folk, yet making their house in the rock." Lesson: Wisdom may consist with little things, and will often succeed where physical strength fails. Yea, better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king.